Islamic Paper Artist MISHKAAH AMIEN

The motive for creating paper artworks is due to my love and fascination with the material, paper. My techniques include paper cutting, and quilling.

Cutting usually involves cutting into the surface of the artwork itself or cutting the required shapes and gluing them onto the surface. Quilling involves cutting thin strips of paper and applying different treatments to them such as bending, twisting and curling.

Themes and subject matter vary from displaying beauty of Islam through Islamic patterning, exploring childhood through nostalgia and memory to simply accentuating other aspects and characters that paper contains besides just being a holding medium.

With paper having great potential to not only contain thoughts and ideas, but also being the holder of history and memories, these aspects play a significant role in conveying the message across to the viewer. Making everything by hand alludes to the sentimentality similarly to the way I feel over my work and messages that I attempt to convey to the viewer.

With my works being 3dimentional, it offers the viewer multiple angles in which to view and perceive my work. Depending on the lighting and placement of the artwork, this too could drastically change the emotion, message and experience of the same piece.

MISHKAAH AMIEN

Born 1991, Cape Town, South Africa.

Graduated in fine art 2012 from the Ruth Prowse School of art.

Themes and concepts

Portraying the beauty of Islam based on Islamic patterning

Childhood as a site for nostalgia

Memory

Typography

Passion

To exploit the possibilities of paper and evoke peacefulness within the viewer